


A Case of Monstrous Proportions

by Ottsky



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, I don't know, MAN THESE TAGS ARE REALLY INVOLVED AND I'VE ONLY WRITTEN ONE CHAPTEr, Oh right Reader is Trans (mtf), take time to brush up on your geopolitics friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-10 16:19:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8923939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ottsky/pseuds/Ottsky
Summary: The Reader works for the brand spanking new "Department of Monster Normalisation," A new governmental agency that eixsts now that the monsters have come up from underneath Mt. Ebott. Their job is fairly simple - to integrate monsters into human society, while the big players make big moves. Along this trip, of course, things become complicated by the inherent nature of humans fucking everything up.





	1. You’ll Never Be the Same, When This is Over

There was a moment of startled discomfort when you woke yourself up with that stupid alarm. You loved that sort of high energy techno, but you still didn’t know why you put it on your alarm as right now your body was screaming that this was the worst idea ever. But no, no, this was important. You had to get up, today at least. Slowly, you groaned, and dragged yourself out of bed. The bed was your number one positive in this new situation. You’d finally… well, you’d finally moved into your ‘own place’. This meant you had to get yourself up, instead of banking on parents, or friends. Friends, yeah, that was a good one.

You were proud of yourself in a way, you’d finally graduated to ‘adulthood’ at the ripe age of 27, managing to graduate with your bachelor’s degree and get a job as a legislative aid in your senator’s office. The one you liked, too. You had been doing, well. It wasn’t what you’d expected, dealing with paperwork, mounds and mounds of paperwork, and lots and lots of phone calls. It felt…important, ish? But it was hard to put your heart into it when you spent most of your time just writing out things for other people to make important decisions on. You never made any important decisions. Hell, it felt like a weird step back - after having been a supervisor at a pharmacy when you’d taken your break from school, you were oddly uncomfortable not being in charge of a situation.

Then, well. Mt Ebott had opened up. Monsters had poured out, well, not all of them, from what you’d actually learned, but enough that things had gotten, out of hand, at least. It had become a hot-button topic at the UN, in the government, in politics in general – you were always tapped into it given your position, but the fact that you knew people who had been deployed to the ‘Refugee Camp’ that was now at the base of Mt Ebott made it all too real. It was literally in your back yard, so to speak. The mountain was actually a popular skiing destination in the winter, and had largely managed to shake off the old stories of being a place where children went to disappear and never come back. There had been a sudden shift when it was realized that Monsters lived under there – it had never been much of a big deal that the mountain had never been touched, no one knew why before, but now it had become somewhat obvious, that the ‘barrier’ didn’t just effect monsters, it had somehow created a mental barrier for humans, too.

The government, in its usual slow paced way, had dawdled on what to do with the monsters for about three weeks, before pressure from the King of Monsters (what an absurd title, yet here you were) finally pushed them to form a department which had the explicit job of integrating monsters into human society. The hiring had been abysmal, apparently – you were one of the few people who volunteered for the job, happy to help, but also…acutely aware how much of you had a feeling of kindred spirits with these new people – and that meant that you were going to be assigned way more of a load than initially planned. Four monsters. Maybe Five, if things got out of hand and from what your recruiter’s tone of voice came off with, things were getting out of hand.

So today you stood up and stumbled out of bed, mumbling just a bit as you brushed your hair out of your face, and looked in the mirror. Shit. You needed to shave. Ugh, you hated that feeling, drawing your fingers over your chest as you felt the incongruity sting between your feminine body and that persistent facial hair. A quiet pang of regret that you hadn’t asked for the electrolysis treatments for your birthday like your mom had suggested. Either way, it wasn’t much of an option, that had to go first. You couldn’t stand to show up and have the monsters doing the same thing you had hated humans so much for doing. You were a girl, damnit!

You were a girl.

You were, a, girl. You reminded yourself. It was a quiet reason you had signed on to this job. You wanted to show that you could be supportive of people like you – people who deserved the chance to be treated like they wanted to be treated, to be respected the way that people had denied you for so long – 

No, no, no. Not today. You couldn’t start today with tears. So into the bathroom you went. A shave, grateful you had decided to shower last night instead of worrying about it in the morning, and then back into the bedroom, stumbling over a pile of dirty laundry that you really should have picked up by this point. Later. No one came around anyway, so it wasn’t that pressing. Clothing on, panties (tucking a little bit, it wasn’t super necessary, but still, first impression is the most important) socks, bra, undershirt, then those nice dress pants, that nice blouse, a dress jacket, and a small necklace with a small Blue, pink and white flag on it. It was about as explicit as you got with symbols, and it had meant a lot to many people who realized you were, well, one of ‘them’ when it came to being in the senator’s office. It was still important to you as a result, so today was as good a day as any to wear it.

Normally you would have stopped and made yourself some proper breakfast, but, it was already reaching the point that you were going to be late if you decided you weren’t going to leave right now. And you did have to drive for a while to get to where you were going (The camp had been set up in the parking lot of the ski resort.) An hour and a half. You had to see if you could get some accommodations near the site, perhaps.

Moving the monsters near you would just be rude.

\----------

You had stopped at Dunkin’s on the way out. A coffee, a bagel, and a donut was enough to get through a morning, right? You sure hoped so. Taking a moment as you sat in the traffic on the stupid highway, you flicked your phone open and started reading. Case files for the people you’d ‘chosen’. You had just wanted to do a single, but, things were so complicated, and you’d rapidly learned that monsters seemed to come in pairs, which made about as much sense to you as anything else.

Sans. Skeleton, Five feet flat in height. Skills seemed to hint at guard work, and also some implications of a science background. Was clammed up apparently, most of his documents were focused on his brother.

Papyr- 

You swerve and slam your horn when someone mistakes your deliberate gap in traffic for an invitation to change lanes, and nearly ends up smashing into your passenger door.  
Fucking morons.

Papyrus. Apparently also a skeleton, the brother of Sans. He was an absurd 6 feet 5 inches, and you knew this was going to become a point of embarrassment for you. He was apparently very loud (his entire case file was typed in all caps), very needy (he had a list of things he wanted already, including a ‘RED SPORTS CAR’), and very worried about his brother. How sweet.

The other two seemed to be a couple, which you supposed made it easier.

Undyne, 5’11”, Fish person? You weren’t sure how the uh, terminology was going to be, but she seemed to be probably your number one challenge. She was someone you had originally avoided so hard, but no one else wanted her, so now you were stuck with her. This was fine, you chided yourself mentally. She had been a part of the ‘royal guard’, which you assumed had been disbanded once the government had found out there was a royal family around, and had dispatched no less than thirty armed agents to protect them. From the reports, you weren’t sure the king or queen needed protection, but that wasn’t your call, was it? 

Alphys, 5’6”. A dinosaur of some sort. She was your height, and came off with the temperament of your youngest brother. Dorky anime nerd with an incredible brilliance. You were one hundred percent sure you had an idea for her already, if you could only call in some friends to assist. You had a plan for her. A plan called “Brainpower Triangle”.  
The traffic couldn’t get much more frustrating than this, however, and you were one hundred percent certain that if you didn’t get out of this stupid gridlock, you were going to end up pulling your hair out before you even met what was sure to be one of the hardest things you’d ever done in your entire life.

\-----------------

You drove up to the parking area. There was a huge checkpoint that you had already managed to get through, thankfully. Oh man. You could already hear people screaming behind the picket lines, and yelling at you (someone had managed to hit the car with some sort of rock from the sound and the fact that at least two national guardsmen had started yelling) for crossing the line. Quietly, you pulled up and parked the car, closing your eyes as you fought down a bunch of feelings all at once. You were of course, two minutes late. Being on time was never your forte and this was apparently going to be no exception. Sighing a little, you grabbed your purse, slipping it on and then stepping out of the car, mumbling as you looked forward. 

“…Holy shit." It was the only thing you could get out at the first sight, you had stepped into what seemed to be a whole different universe. So many different people, they looked so different. Sure, you’d been to places outside of the country, experienced culture that wasn’t just the US, but… Everyone here seemed so different! It was almost bizarre, but in the way that made you feel super uncomfortable. Quietly, you made your way around towards a central ‘building’. You were supposed to meet the people you were going to be working there.

The building was a set of Special FEMA trailers that had been repurposed from a cafeteria to a central office of sorts. Shifting, you ran a hand through your hair as you tried to make sure it was nice and flat and you looked good before you walked into that office, feeling incredibly noticeable because of your status as human. Finally, you got to that office, and stepped inside and then inwardly you groaned.

“WE WEREN’T SURE IF YOU WERE COMING, HUMAN!”

“got paps all worried.”

“YEAH! Who do you think you are being late on your first day!?”

This was going to be a rough first day.


	2. Every Cross on the Roadside Tells a Story

There was a moment where you pinched your nose, and then smiled at everyone. “…Hi, everyone. I’m _____, and, yeah. You’re all uh, who I’m here to help then? Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys?”

Saying everyone’s name seemed to both mollify their worries that you weren’t, well, you, but also spark a new round of everything all at once. Papyrus and Undyne seemed to be so eager to talk they both made concerted attempts to do it at the same time with competing volumes. You allow this for a few moments, feeling too uncomfortable to say anything before finally, Alphys cracked in for a moment.

“Y-you know; I don’t t-think that _____ c-can u-un-understand e-either of you…” You could feel a wave of relief roll off of you as the two loudmouths stop for a moment to consider this. They look at each other and sigh.

“SO, HUMAN. WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU HERE TO DO, ANYWAY?” the question seemed simple enough but you immediately realized that the … curious outfit was not attached to a dull mind.

“YEAH! What exactly do we need YOUR help for, human!? You’re just…some weird, official person! How are you supposed to fix what’s going on!?”

You ponder this sort of blow to your self-esteem only after you have that sensation of your entire body going on alert. Hackles up, heart pounding in your chest, you couldn’t help it. You were immediately on alert, and you had to swallow your pride before you spoke again, fighting down this intense fight or flight. Slowly grinding your fingers into the desk, you smile just as much as you can force, and you sigh, whistling silently between your teeth.

“My job is to help get you set in the rest of the human world. As much as it would be hilariously appropriate to just partition off a chunk of land from white folk and give it to monsters for their own sovereign state, that simply isn’t going to happen, so…” You wince – the joke goes over about as well as farting at a funeral, and you swallow. “So. The government has officially decided to use emergency funds to open a department that exists to basically…formally rehouse, educate, and place monsters into human society, along with a…restitution fund that is regularly given to you.” Looking at the four, you shake with feeling.

“…so we get money and you get us places to live? well. that’s a real different line from what those folk outside are saying, and i’ve heard a skeleton of what they’ve been saying as of late.” Sans speaks up, and the pun catches you off, a response that seems to get a chuckle out of what you can only assume relates to the face you just made.  
“t-that s-s-seems like a nice thing t-t-to do after a-ah, a-all of these l-living c-c-conditions… N—no offense i-i-if you’d picked tthem out o-or anything..!”

“I don’t think that this human has anything to do with where we’re living right now, frankly.”

“YES, HUMAN, PLEASE. EXPLAIN WHY THERE ARE SO MANY TENTS, AND SO MUCH OF THAT CIRCLED WIRE, AND ALL OF THOSE MEN WITH SOME SORT OF WEAPON?”

Oh, god, right away with the hard questions. You sucked a breath in now that you were relatively confident no one was going to jump over the table to get a piece of you. “The tents are uh.. Disaster Aid equipment, they’re for temporary shelter to give people who don’t have anywhere to live somewhere to live for a short time, while they’re getting help finding somewhere to live. Usually uh. They’re used for blizzards, or floods, or bad storms.” There was a moment of pause when people seemed to not understand. “…the weather changes up here, and sometimes it gets severe enough that it can seriously hurt people and destroy property and this stuff is for those emergencies.”

Fuck. You wringed your hands a little bit, before continuing. “The men all around the compound are National Guardsmen…and they’re here to keep you safe and inside of the encampment.” You shifted in your seat, trying to find some way to feel comfortable in a physical way when you obviously weren’t comfortable in a mental way. The lack of response is dauntingly indicative of a ‘go on,’ and is rapidly filled with a loud ‘PLEASE CONTINUE.’ 

“Look, usually, uh. In times of crisis, National Guardsmen are like, guardsmen, in your society, they come out to guard things, or people, and to help with things that can’t be handled by usual emergency services. Er. People who enforce laws, put out fires, bring sick people to medical care, and the like.” You shiver at the withering glare you’re getting right now. “So all of the humans that you’ve met here inside of the fencing have been police, or firefighters, or medical technicians, or national guardsmen. But uh. They’re ALSO here because outside of the walls there aresomepeoplewhoareangryandafraidofyouallsuddenlyappearing.” You’re aware that all runs together into one big mash of sound, which gets you a few stares, before Undyne narrows her single eye. 

“…So what you’re saying is that WE’RE stuck in here because people out there want to kills us!? What the hell! Why are we cooped up in here! WE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO PROTECT OURSELVES-”

“b-but undyne, that w-would, just, e-engender more hostility, y-you know t-that if w-w-we were out t-there then t-they’d u-u-u-u-use it against us.” You immediately felt bad for that stutter. Sure, you’d read the psychological profiles and you’d learned what you could but a stutter was a stutter and you couldn’t help but cringe at your own discomfort and then double down on your own need to push through anxiety you were obviously having and –

“I STILL DO NOT UNDERSTAND! WHY DO THEY STAND ON THE EDGES OF THE COMPOUND, AND WE ARE CONTAINED WITHIN A LARGE FENCED AREA?” The Tall skeleton spoke again, jarring you out of your own line of thoughts – you would have thanked him if it hadn’t also meant that you were forced back into answering increasingly pointed questions that seemed to have a very obvious end that you weren’t super enthusiastic about reaching. Taking a deep sigh, you mumbled out something about ‘tired already,’ which seemed to have been heard by the smaller skeleton, given his soft snort as you answered.

“Because we don’t know what you’re capable of, so that makes people afraid of you, and if they’re afraid of you, then the next immediate response is to be hostile. It’s…alarmingly common, and yeah. They’re…” You let out a sigh, mumbling as you draw your phone out, just, thumbing the shape of it as you look at everyone in front of you and just, swallow your own breath. “Someone already threw stones at my car for having the audacity to work with you guys.”

There was a palpable stop as the monsters mulled this over. There was a moment when the four of them looked between each other, and suddenly you felt like the worst person. Maybe being honest wasn’t the most appropriate choice here. but. No, no, that would be the wrong attitude. No, have to believe that telling the truth is the right choice or you’ll slip into worse habits than just that obsessive thumbing over that phone to give your hands something to do.

“…This wasn’t exactly what any of us envisioned when we came up.” Undyne finally admitted, speaking with a sort of firm seriousness that belied how stressed out she was and by extension everyone else was, though Sans seemed to be more than happy to reach over and give Papyrus some pats and started to mutter to him as Alphys seemed to shrink.

“…I wish I could pretend that this was how I imagined this going either, but…that’s why I’m here, right? My job is to, heh, It’s to try and make this all easier! Even if that means moving you to wherever makes you comfortable, or moving out here, or, anything…” You’d tried to sell it, and there was obviously a moment of pleasure as Papyrus smiled a little.

“THANK YOU HUMAN, YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED.”

“…yeah. you’re a real help, i guess.” Sans seemed to be…intensely skeptical of you. And you knew why, and you understood why, but it still hurt. You fought down that bristling sensation that overwhelmed you like it did every time someone spoke down to you, or ill of you. You’d show him. You’d show them all! You’d do the best damn job, and, you’d be a real…

“I guess we can’t all be quite as see through, sans, I’ll admit I’m a bit opaque. But I’m trying to get past that whole door-ty feeling of being here, and offer an open, and easy to read person. I think we’ll all have a bunch of good in store here.” This immediately earned a pair of groans from Undyne and Papyrus, and a slight shift in demeanour from Sans. “Either way, I have some paperwork that I have to do with each of you, if that’s okay? So, uh. Who would like to go fir-“ 

Undyne was already up and standing, staring intensely at you. “WE’LL Go first.” She looks almost hostile at whatever you were about to say, and then you nodded slowly, paling a bit. God, eating food was a mistake, you could feel your stomach flinging itself around inside of you, trying to push itself out of your body out your throat. You took a deep breath in and then out, and Alphys let out an incredibly small ‘sorry,’ as Sans and Papyrus obligingly stepped into the hallway.

Shifting a little, you had to walk through some very invasive questions. Name, Date of Birth (You ended up having to come up with one – November 20th for Undyne, and July 25th for Alphys), ‘gender’ (a concept that seemed to be a bit frustrating for you, and it showed blatantly as you seemed to bristle at the paperwork,) and more. Once you had everything, you formally printed out a ‘birth certificate’ and a ‘social security card’ for each of them. Smiling a little, you tried to pull off the most genuine look you could.

“So, all of this is REALLY necessary?” Undyne had been skeptical through the entire thing, and now that she had all of her paperwork, she seemed more eager to question it’s use. “I mean, we didn’t need all this stuff underground! We were all just, monsters! No one went around policing who we were just for the sake of it! I’d have thrown anyone who questioned me through a wall, anyway, the damn punk!” By the end Undyne was all fired up, which took Alphys’s considerable effort to calm down before you felt comfortable explaining anything at all.

“I just, I know it’s not, I don’t know if it’s necessary, but I’d rather be, like, I’d, like, uhm.” Trying to explain to someone why you wanted to make sure they had their citizenship paperwork in order? That was, it was so esoteric, you realized that it was almost comedic, if you didn’t know how important it was. But here Undyne and Alphys are staring at you, expectantly, waiting for you to explain what’s wrong and why you feel like this will fix it. Or at least help. And you can’t form a sentence. You’re staring at the two, and that hard lump forms in your throat as you can feel that stinging in the corners of your eyes. Suddenly you’re no words and all stumbling, words jumbling and slamming into each other, thoughts careening through your head, slamming and piling up at once as you felt that sensation in your chest, tightening, nausea, swelling up inside of you as you fought off tears, fought down sensations, shuddering. You didn’t need this now, this was the last thing you wanted, you were shaking a little bit and then all of a sudden you were gagging over a trashcan, shaking visibly as you passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually have anxiety, so this is one of those things that I wanted to impart upon the character because Idunno, (part of me feels like there isn't enough to explain that so totally uncomfortable feeling that is a panic attack)


	3. The One Thing We Remember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The closure to the 'trilogy' that has been the first day. fun times later. Promise.

You weren’t out more than a minute, but when you came to, chest pounding painfully and head dizzy, you had two figures over you. You’d never passed out like this before – gotten woozy, fallen over or fell down, but never gone unconscious. As your vision comes back into focus you realise that you have, uh, two monsters over you?

“H-hey, you t-t-took a big fall t-t-there, a-are you okay?” Alphys has your hand, and is squeezing it gently, in a rhythm that you recognize. A slow, steady pace. The one you used oftentimes when you got particularly bad anxiety attacks, and needed to calm down before you, hurt yourself. There are tears on your face as you attempt to apologise, but are interrupted. “hey, hey, it’s okay. breathe, focus on breathing, count with me and alphys, okay?” You realise the other person there is uh, Sans? The smaller skeleton. The two of them have apparently shuffled their larger, more boisterous counterparts out of the room, leaving the three of you in a gentle, white room with simple rug and plain wooden furniture. Shuffling over a little, you mumble out another apology and finally agree to do the breathing exercise with the other two. They look calm, and comfortable, and you feel, safe in a way that you haven’t felt since you showed up.

“Can we open the window?” you manage to squeak out, chest still pounding away like the staccato beats of a snare drum. The two nod, and you can hear the window open, but neither of them seem to move. Alphys frowns a little, just long enough that you spot it happening before she turns her attention back to you. “Heh, y-you scared U-Undyne a lot, s-sshe didn’t realise that you h-had anxiety i-i-issues.” Blinking a little, you realise the subtext.

“Was I that obvious...?” You ask, having to force your way through the words as Sans sighs.

“you wore it better than you might think.”

“Y-yeah, you’re not that b-bad a-at hiding it. I-I could u-use some ti-tips some time…” You let out a quiet thank you before looking off to the side. If there was any circumstance that could have been more fortunate than this right here, you weren’t sure you could imagine it. You had two people, that you had to be friends with anyway because of work, holding you to work you through a panic attack. The worst you’d had in years. Some part of you was terrified, and embarrassed beyond belief that you’d do this in front of clients, people who were supposed to depend on you for everything from here on out, but part of you as also immensely grateful that they were so supportive and understanding. You were slowly coming down off of that adrenaline ‘high’ that made your stomach twist and turn, when a thump on the door startled you out of your reverie.

“SANS? IS EVERYTHING OKAY IN THERE? IT’S BEEN A WHILE, AND WE’RE WORRIED.” Oh, okay, alright. They are in fact just outside. Looking at you, the two monsters do their best effort to ask if it’s okay that everyone comes back into the room, the sort of minute facial expressions that communicate far more than words, and far more tactfully as well. Shuffling slightly up, you nod, wobbling your way up to your seat as you grab the cup of coffee you have and swallow down as much as you can fit down your throat in one go. Shifting, a small apart of you, the part that isn’t actively recovering from your panic attack, is completely fascinated by the ability of two faces that are distinctly not human to communicate such information that you would have only expected from more a therapist, or…your ex. Heh. You didn’t mean to think of him, but now you were. That was something that didn’t need to be thought about right now, but it was in your head, so you knew it’d bother you for the rest of the day. Sighing, you pull your blouse and jacket about just a little to resettle your outfit as Undyne and Papyrus step back in the room.

Undyne looks…remorseful. The face of someone who hadn’t meant for what had happened to, well, happen. She genuinely seemed…upset? Though some small part of you had a sense (or suspicion) that was because of the faces that were on Alphys and Sans – they might be skeptical of humans, but they both seemed more frustrated that Undyne would send someone into a panic attack like that. There is a surprisingly quiet “sorry” given to you, and you nod, sighing slowly as you let out an equally quiet ‘thank you’. The air hangs for a moment.

“SO, AH, IF I MAY ASK, HUMAN, YOU ARE ALL OKAY, YES? WE AREN’T INTRUDING? SANS SAYS YOU FELL QUITE HARD.” Papyrus broke that silence the only way he seemed to know how, by slamming it with the full brunt of his voice. You nodded, a strained motion that seemed to belie how poor you actually felt in spite of trying to sound comfortable and confident again. You wringed your hands slowly, looking at the wall as you took a deep breath in, and then out. Finally, you let out a soft laugh, a thin smile spreading over your features.

“No, I’m not ok. But that’s life, isn’t it? We’re not ok and we push through it anyway…” The words came out of your mouth unbidden, but you’d promised yourself that you’d stop lying about your emotions nearly ten years ago now, and the habit of using that line had become so engrained that when pressed, it was an automatic response. Papyrus flinched at that, and then nodded, slowly.

“AH. I, AM SORRY HUMAN.”

“Please, Papyrus. Call me _____. Please?”

“RIGHT, OF COURSE, _____.”

Your shoulders slumped in relief. Maybe you could thank the two monsters later for being so forward about their knowledge. You decided you’d make some brownies, when you got home, and you’d pack them to bring to work tomorrow. Shaking, a little, you shifted, and grabbed a pill bottle from your desk. Grabbing the pepto pills and putting them in your mouth shakily, you swallowed them down and took a drink of your coffee. The sensation of swallowing the pills did more to cool your fried nerves than the actual contents of the pill.

With the majority of your pride shattered, left on the floor and thoroughly scraped up into the trash, the rest of the day was relatively quiet. You spent most of the afternoon pounding out paperwork, really only stopping every so often to chat with Sans or Alphys, and very rarely a coworker. Papyrus and Undyne apparently made you some spaghetti, and delivered it for your lunch – it was a very thoughtful act, and you forced down most of it with a promise that you’d spend some time cooking with them so you could share your own skills with them. It wasn’t the worst pasta you’d ever had, but you were one hundred percent sure that you could encourage and cultivate even better skills from the two of them.

The end of the day came quicker than you thought it would – You made a point of sharing your phone number with each of the four that you were working with, so now you had four smiling faces in your favorites. You’d even made a point of telling them they could reach out to you whenever you wanted to have your voice on the other end of the line, provided they respected you weren’t always in the mood to talk. You had your own life and all that. Naturally, as you walked to your cart, checking to make sure that you had your stuff, purse, computer bag, lunchbag, and your keys, making sure to tap your pockets three times to confirm. A quiet walk to the parking lot, clambering into the old SUV that you drove around, over twelve years old now, but it was solid, and looked professional, black vehicle with dark grey interior that had been detailed recently enough that the ambient sand and dirt that came from use hadn’t worked back in yet. Today was over, the drive was going to be long, but at least you’d be sleeping in your bed.

When you got home, you’d cooked some ‘fried rice,’ shoveling it in your mouth before getting to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a new day, and you were going to help your new charges.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking ten years to update! I'm really bad about finishing stuff so this has been about 80% done in the file for way too long. Finally posting it!


End file.
